Jesus is the Image of the Invisible God
If someone talks to you about another person who interests us, you may ask, do you have his or her photo? And if you meet that person after seeing the photo, you can recognize them. You put a face to the name and story.
Now, Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being (Hebrews 1:3). Going back to our analogy, you can put a face to the invisible God by looking at Jesus.
He is Elohim in the flesh, and the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him. So, we cannot claim not to know the invisible God, unless we are distracted by the things of this world, such that we are not looking unto Jesus.
The beauty of Jesus being the image of the invisible God is that He can talk and walk with us. He lived among men as fully God and fully man. We can relate to Him. We learn of Him and from Him.
The Scriptures are always the first and safest place to go to learn about Jesus. They testify of Him, from Genesis to Revelation. As the Holy Spirit helps us, we see Jesus in every text. And then, we have an image, the exact image of the invisible God and His being or person.
Luckily for us, we can both know what the invisible God looks like and how He operates, as well as His abilities, power, heart, mind, and all, by knowing Jesus. Again, fullness of God dwells in Him.
Also Read: Jesus Christ – Elohim in the Flesh
What Does This Mean?
Everything that we see in the Scriptures that Jesus began to teach and do, the invisible God would do the exact same thing. In fact, He did because as Jesus said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works” (John 14:10).
Elsewhere in the same book, He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19).
It would be an error for us to claim we do not know what the Father would do in any situation that Jesus handled, and it was recorded for our reference. If He was hurt by Lazarus’ death, the Father was. If He is touched by the feeling of our infirmities, then the invisible God is.
If Jesus cared to teach His disciples, feed the hungry, free the bound, and heal the sick, the invisible God would and did the same thing. If He loved us to the point of a cruel and shameful death on the cross, guess how much God loves us? With the same measure of love.
Our part is to search the Scriptures with the Spirit of revelation guiding us to see Jesus. That we may behold Him, for then the invisible God becomes visible, tangible, and relatable. And, we are transformed into His image from glory to glory by the Spirit of God (2 Cor 3:18).
Our commitment and zeal should match, if not exceed, that of Paul, who considered all he had attained in the flesh a loss compared to the knowledge of Christ. He wanted to know Christ and Him crucified. That’s what he was pressing for and encouraged us to have the same attitude (Philippians 3:7-17).
There is no shortcut!
Jesus is the image that God has given us to know Him. You cannot come to the Father, except through the Son. To love the Father is to love the Son. To know the Son is to know the Father.
One last thought: When the Scripture talks about the invisible God, is it referring only to the Father? Is the Holy Spirit the invisible God as well? If He is invisible, then to know Christ is to know the Holy Spirit as well.
Remember what Jesus promised in John 14:16, He would ask the Father to send another Counsellor, One like Him who is a Wonderful Counsellor (Isaiah 9:6). We see the works of the Holy Spirit after Pentecost, but Jesus has been modelling to us who He really is, from Genesis to Revelation.
Jesus said the Holy Spirit would reveal Him to us.
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore, I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you (John 16:12-15 NKJV).
God is One in three persons. To know Christ is to know God in His fullness. To know Christ is to know the Father and the Holy Spirit. Christ is the picture that God has given us to look at to know Him and ourselves by extension, because we are created in His image and likeness.
Shalom.
